Refine Intelligence has launched with $13 million in seed funding, introducing a new approach to anti-money laundering (AML) focused on validating legitimate customer activities. The funding round was led by Glilot Capital Partners and Fin Capital, with participation from SYN Ventures, Valley Ventures (Valley Bank’s venture capital arm), and Ground Up Ventures.
Contrary to traditional AML strategies that primarily detect account anomalies, Refine Intelligence’s unique ‘greenflagging’ technique emphasizes understanding customers’ life stories to swiftly dismiss false alarms. This method aims to revolutionize AML processes by enabling banks to concentrate on genuine anomalies, reducing investigation time.
Founded by seasoned entrepreneurs in financial crime fighting and cybersecurity, Refine Intelligence will utilize the investment for growth in North America, Europe, and Latin America, and for further development of its technology.
The company’s system employs user-friendly digital inquiries and AI trained on a proprietary dataset of authentic customer activity patterns. This approach allows banks to efficiently differentiate between suspicious and legitimate transactions.
Refine Intelligence’s initial application at Valley Bank demonstrated significant efficiency, reducing AML inquiry resolution time from 16 days to two minutes. This led to Valley Ventures, Valley Bank’s venture capital arm, investing in the company.
The company’s statistical analysis shows that its Digital Outreach can resolve customer inquiries in two minutes, with an 85% completion rate. Additionally, 64% of all AML alerts are linked to five common life stories, including real estate transactions, cash-intensive job payments, gift transactions, vehicle sales or purchases, and construction expenses.
